Her Cowboy Billionaire Birthday Wish

by Liz Isaacson

  “What’s going on?” She glanced down the hall as Averie came running toward her too. She crouched down and hugged the two little girls; Chrissy, who was five, and Averie, who’d just turned six. “Ooh, you girls smell good. Did you get baths?”

  “My mom has perfume,” Averie said, and a quiet alarm went off in Annie’s head.

  “Oh, I see.” She smiled at the girls. “Did you ask your mom if you could use it?”

  The two little girls exchanged a glance, and Annie had her answer. She never quite knew what to do in a situation like this. These weren’t her children or grandchildren. But she’d been a young mother once, and if her children had been in her perfume or makeup, she would’ve wanted to know.

  “Maybe you should go tell your mom,” Colton said, and Annie looked up at him.

  “Okay,” Averie said, though she didn’t look happy about it. She took Chrissy’s hand, and they went down the steps.

  Colton extended his hand toward her, and Annie let him pull her back to standing. “Thanks,” she said, a zing shooting up to her elbow from his touch. “Sometimes I forget I’m not as young as I once was.”

  Colton barely cracked a smile, and Annie wanted to know why. “Do you ever smile?” she asked.

  “When I have a reason.” He turned and went to the table.

  Annie picked up the cribbage board and followed him, her nerves rattling through her veins as she walked. She sat down in the chair facing the steps and looked at him. “I told you about my husband.”

  Colton gazed evenly at her. “And?”

  “And I like you,” Annie said, her throat closing in on itself. “And I don’t know, maybe you don’t like me, or you’re just…closed off.” She lifted her chin, almost challenging him. “You feel like you have walls up, and I’m wondering what they’re about.”

  She turned the board over and slid open the compartment to get out the pegs. Then the next one where the deck of cards was kept. During that, Colton said nothing. Annie felt him watching her, but she didn’t look at him.

  “What if I’m not ready to share that with you?”

  Annie glanced at him, her eye skating past his face. “Okay, yeah. That’s okay.” She righted the board and stuck the pegs in the start. “Do you know how to play cribbage?”

  “No, ma’am.”

  She paused again, because she definitely felt a flirty vibe coming from across the table. When she looked at Colton, though, he still hadn’t allowed himself to smile. Not even a little bit. He definitely had something deep and dark and dangerous inside him, and Annie’s curiosity burned through her.

  But she’d already asked, and she wasn’t going to do it again.

  Annie started explaining how she’d deal, and what they needed to count, and Colton wore a look like she was speaking a different language. “Let’s just start,” she said with a smile. “You’ll pick it up.” She dealt six cards and picked up her hand. “You choose two to put in the crib.”

  “Any two?” He looked at his cards like they might bite him.

  “Yep.”

  He laid two cards away, and Annie cut the deck and laid a card on top. She tried to walk him through every play, but about ten minutes in, Annie burst into giggles and laid her cards down. “I don’t think cribbage is going to be your game.”

  Colton sighed and laid his hand down too. “Thank goodness.”

  She laughed, and she even got Colton to crack a smile.

  “Ah, there it is,” she said, grinning at him. Clearly flirting with him. She thought she could see a spark in his eyes, but he extinguished it so quickly, she wasn’t sure.

  A call of “ice cream is almost done,” came from downstairs, and Annie stood up.

  “Feeling like ice cream?” she asked.

  He picked up his phone and looked at it before standing too. “Yeah, I just need to call my assistant first.” He barely glanced at her before turning and walking away.

  Annie watched him go, a sting moving through her chest. He paused at the top of the steps and turned back to her, a half a smile on his face. He reached up and touched two fingers to the brim of his hat, expanded that grin, and started down the steps.

  Annie fell back into her chair, because that man’s smile had the power to knock a woman backward.

  She felt redeemed after acting like a fool in front of Colton. “Thank you, Lord,” she whispered. “And if possible, could You help him break down his walls?”

  Maybe Annie was asking too much of the Lord in that regard, but she did want to get to know Colton better, and she felt like she’d never be able to without some divine help.

  Chapter Ten

  Colton retreated to the basement, fully intending to call Kacey and find out about the things Wes needed him to approve. He knew intellectually that he couldn’t leave HMC forever. At the same time, he wondered if he could.

  He had all the right contacts for the job, and until he’d been stood up at his own wedding, Colton had enjoyed his job a whole lot. His home away from home had been on the twenty-fourth floor of the HMC building. He’d pulled many an all-nighter there, but the thought of going back had every defense in him firing.

  He’d run from Denver and Ivory Peaks, hoping for some rest and relaxation. Some time to find himself. But Annie already knew who she was, and she wanted Colton to talk to her. He really didn’t like talking.

  Fine, he liked it when he didn’t have to do any of the sharing. He wasn’t even sure he’d said out loud to anyone that he’d been left standing at the altar in the deepest, darkest, blackest tuxedo money could buy.

  He turned toward the mirror in the room and opened his mouth. “See, here’s the thing….” But the right words didn’t come.

  Sighing, he lifted his phone and tapped to dial Kacey. Though it was after dinner, and she wouldn’t be sitting at her desk outside his office, she still answered on the second ring. “Colton,” she said. “I’ve been trying to call you for two days.”

  “I haven’t gotten a call,” he said. “The reception must be bad here.”

  “We’ve got a couple of things to go over.”

  “Lay ‘em out for me,” he said, reaching for his laptop backpack and pulling out his computer for the first time since he’d left town. He wasn’t even sure if this place had Wi-Fi, but he imagined they did. They claimed to be a luxury lodge, after all.

  “First, we have the spring catalog,” Kacey said, and Colton bit back his irritation. He did not care about the spring catalog, though he’d literally combed through every page of previous catalogs. He listened to Kacey detail the pages she had concerns about, and Colton promised he’d get back to her no later than tomorrow night.

  “The graphic designer came back with four designs for the new company logo,” she continued. “Wes and Gray have marked their favorite two, and they’re waiting on you, sure you’ll be the one to break the tie.”

  “Oh, I see that email,” Colton said, as he’d finally gotten his computer up and connected to the Internet. “I can do this in the next five minutes.” One minute really, as he’d spent plenty of time in meetings with his brothers about the new face of Hammond Manufacturing Company to move them into the future.

  He’d been the one to send the concept notes over to the graphic design company they’d hired, and he clicked to download the zipped file so he could see his choices. “I won’t keep you,” Colton said as the download circle spun. “Thanks, Kacey. I’ll go through my email and get you everything you need.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I didn’t mean to leave you to Wesley the Wolf.”

  Kacey laughed, and Colton smiled thinking about the blonde who kept everything straight for him. “Please,” she said. “I can handle Wes.” And she could. Colton had seen her put his brother in his place a couple of times, despite Wes being the CEO of the entire family-owned operation.

  Colton allowed himself to chuckle. “Yes, you can.”

  “Okay,” she said. “I won’t bother you until after the holidays unles
s it’s an emergency.”

  “Looks like email is going to be the best way to get me,” Colton said. “I honestly didn’t get any calls.”

  “Email it is,” she said, and Colton let her end the call so he could click on the freshly downloaded zip file. The folder came up, and he double-clicked to get the images open. All four popped up, and he dismissed the first one in the corner immediately. It had way too much blue in it, though he’d specifically said the logo must have blue.

  They all did, and he gravitated toward the green and gray one, with the navy something he liked a whole lot. But the one with a sort of reddish-magenta, with a deep, ocean blue, and hints of yellow was nice too.

  Wes would like that one the best, Colton knew. He liked the font on the HMC, as it looked a bit more abstract with all the straight lines in the H and the M, with the C around them both—and the fact that it said family-owned underneath it.

  Gray had definitely chosen the green and gray and navy one, because he liked blocky letters more than an abstract concept, and Gray was more of a straight-shooter when it came to everything. He’d gone to law school and returned to the company to be the corporate lawyer, doing a bang-up job for the past nineteen years. He knew more than anyone Colton knew, and he wouldn’t want anything too frilly.

  Not that the more abstract design was frilly. Hammond Manufacturing wasn’t frilly—another specification delivered to the graphic design team. They made plastics and electronics, pharmaceuticals and components for aircrafts that flew across the globe.

  Colton sided with Gray on this one, and he sent his choice to Kacey, checking the time on his phone. He’d been down in the bedroom for fifteen minutes, and with the size of the crowd at Whiskey Mountain Lodge, the ice cream could be gone by now.

  Part of him wanted it to be. The other part didn’t want to leave Annie hanging like that. He’d definitely felt something between them.

  Had he felt something for her?

  Colton wasn’t in the habit of lying to himself, so he nodded and said, “Yeah, you felt something for her.” Especially when she’d thought he and Bree were starting something romantic behind her back. He’d managed to put that fire out, and he wanted to kindle a different kind of spark between him and Annie.

  He took his cowboy had off and smoothed his hair back. Suddenly feeling self-conscious, he hurried into the bathroom to brush his teeth, noticing how much more gray he had growing in his beard and on his head now. He wasn’t sure if that had increased since Priscilla’s departure from his life almost seven weeks ago. He just knew he looked older than he remembered.

  He looked tired.

  He brushed his teeth while the water heated, and then he washed his face with a warm washcloth. With his cowboy hat back in place, Colton went upstairs, feeling like he might be able to say something to Annie that would make her happy.

  He pulled back on the thought, because he didn’t want to do things only to make her happy. He needed to be happy too, and he decided to just play it by ear.

  He stepped into the hallway at the top of the steps, the chatter coming from the kitchen echoing toward him. He’d never thought he’d want to be around so many people, but he actually found it somewhat comforting. It reminded him that while he wasn’t with family, he wasn’t alone. He realized in that moment that what Bree had said during his first meal with the Whittakers was true.

  When you work for the Whittakers, you become a Whittaker.

  He didn’t work for them, but he definitely felt like they’d be glad to see him when he walked in the kitchen. He did, and no less than three men leapt from their chairs. “Yes,” Graham said. “Colton’s here.”

  “Don’t influence him,” another—Beau—said. “Hey, Colton.” He smiled while the third brother had to come around the table.

  “Neither of you even blink,” Eli said. “You’re such cheaters.” He joined his brothers, the fourth—Andrew—getting up much slower. He held a baby boy in his arms, and he definitely seemed the least threatening.

  “We have a tie,” Graham said. “And we need just one more taste-tester. Whichever ice cream you choose will win.” He grinned, though an anxiousness existed in his expression too.

  “I don’t know if I can handle the pressure.” Colton grinned back at them, this formidable wall of cowboys who had somehow found women who came to the altar and formed families.

  Maybe Colton had given up on women too soon.

  “Too late,” Annie said, stepping through the wall of cowboys with a tray in her hands. He met her eye, cemented his smile in place, and then looked at the four small glass bowls on the tray, each featuring a different flavor of ice cream.

  Beau suddenly had four different spoons, and Colton realized he wasn’t going to get a relaxing evening at the table eating as much ice cream as he wanted. He took a spoon and dipped it into the chocolate bowl.

  He tasted coconut, and chocolate, and something else that made his mouth rejoice. “That’s good,” he said.

  An uproar filled the kitchen, and Colton actually took a step back.

  “You don’t say anything,” Annie said, grinning at him with more flirtatiousness in her gaze than he’d seen from any woman for a long, long time.

  “I can’t say anything?”

  “No,” several people said.

  “It’s a tie-breaker,” someone added, and Colton wanted to say he’d missed the explanation of the rules.

  “You taste,” Annie said. “Take your time. Then you can proclaim a winner.”

  He took another bite of the chocolate ice cream, because it was good, and Colton didn’t want just four bites.

  “Oh, he’s liking the chocolate,” Eli said, his grin widening.

  “I think you all need to go sit down,” Celia said, stepping between Colton and the cowboys. Also, she blocked the ice cream. “Now.”

  “Fine,” Graham said, nudging the brother closest to him. But none of them moved.

  “Let’s go in the living room,” Annie said, stepping around Celia. “You keep them here.”

  “Wait a second,” Beau protested, but Celia acted as a bouncer, and she did not let them by. Colton chuckled as he followed Annie into the living room.

  “Are they always like this?”

  “When there’s a title at stake, yes.”

  “There’s a title?”

  “And a trophy.” Annie laughed as she handed him the tray with the ice cream so she could collect a TV tray for him. “Stockton and Bailey made it, and you should’ve seen those men’s faces when it was a tie.”

  “I honestly don’t know if I can handle this pressure.”

  Annie set up his tray and gave him a sly smirk before she took the ice cream back from him. “You can. Sit.”

  Colton sat, finding her strong and sexy as she stood in front of him. When he let go of his reservations and unlocked the doors he’d built around his heart…maybe he could allow another woman into his life.

  He pulled the TV tray closer to him and picked up another spoon, this time diving into the white ice cream. He became aware of the audience he’d drawn, though they’d congregated in the doorway and hadn’t come all the way into the room. None of them were the Whittaker brothers though.

  “Oh,” he said when he found the flavor to be toasty, warm marshmallow, with a hint of something spicy beneath it. He ate that whole bowl, liking it more and more with every bite.

  He ate the third bowl too, which had mint, chocolate, and pine nuts, all things he loved. The fourth bowl also had a chocolate base, but this one had peanut butter and the hint of raspberry jelly. Colton had never eaten chocolate and peanut butter together and not fallen in love, and he wanted more of that one right now.

  And that was his answer. “That one,” he said, tapping the bowl that had the PB&J—with chocolate. “It’s amazing.”

  A cheer went up from a few people, and he heard footsteps running back into the kitchen, where someone said, “He chose Beau’s!”

  Cheers and boos filled the
air, and Annie said, “Let’s get back in there to see the trophy awarded.”

  He stood and followed her, arriving in the kitchen just as two teenagers lifted a tall structure made of mostly egg cartons and empty aluminum cans. Colton recognized a crude rendition of an ice cream cone at the top, and they presented it to Beau, who lifted it above his head and shook it while he bellowed.

  Colton had never seen anything like it, and while the other Whittaker brothers looked at him and shook their heads, in the end they clapped and grinned too. They even went up and hugged Beau like they were really happy for him.

  Colton inched closer to Annie and touched her hand with his. She flinched, but he held on tight and leaned down. “Can I have more of that chocolate ice cream?”

  She giggled and nodded. “I’ll get it for you. Which one?”

  “Both of them,” he said. “Whose was the other one?”

  “Eli’s,” Annie said. “I voted for his.” She squeezed his hand and went into the other side of the kitchen to get his ice cream, and they retreated to the living room again. Several other people did too, including the two girls he’d seen her with throughout the day.

  “Colton,” she said as they sat nearby. “These are my daughters. Emily is the oldest. Eden is the youngest.” She beamed at them, and they smiled at her too.

  “Nice to meet you,” he said. “I’m right in the middle of my family.”

  “How many siblings?” Emily asked easily.

  “Five boys,” he said. “Third in line. I was always the swing vote, so you’d think I’d be used to what just happened, but nope.” He put another spoonful of ice cream in his mouth.

  “What do you do?” Emily asked, and Colton had a suspicion that her mother had put her up to asking all these questions. Annie sure was sitting silently beside him on the couch, and she just watched him.

  “I’m the executive marketing director for my family company.” Before she could ask him something else, he asked her, “What do you do?”

  “I do all the accounting and bookkeeping for Mom’s business.”